HOW HAS THE PANDEMIC IMPACTED FACTORS IN SCHOOL CHOICE DECISION MAKING? While issues like approaches to pastoral care, location and a school’s financial resilience remain important for parents – and link into academic quality – parents in a post-Covid-19 world are assessing other aspects of international schools.
“Parents are increasingly interested in our approach to managing health and safety,” said Jonathan Taylor. “It is now very much around operational safety and nimble planning,” as well as managing uncertainty. Parents are looking to schools to communicate the health and safety protocols they have in place. They want to know if schools are doing enough to ensure the spread of coronavirus is limited in the school environment when schools are open and how learning can continue during lockdowns.
Many of the 3,000 parents surveyed by L.E.K. Consulting in summer 2020 are also evaluating the quality of online and remote learning in international schools; increasingly critical competencies for schools and teaching staff because of the pandemic.
MANAGING UNCERTAINTY
“When coronavirus first arrived, it was the uncertainty about how it was going to play out,” said Jonathan Taylor. “The challenge in February and March was not knowing what came next. From my school’s perspective, we have been making digital literacy key since I started 18 months ago in post. Stage 1 was about getting students learning in some capacity, remaining connected and a focus on
wellbeing and physical exercise. This is an area Cognita excels. The Cognita Home Games brought children around the world together. “Stage 2 was refining that and continuing to
manage wellbeing and connectivity. Now Stage 3 is this, as well as equity. If schools demand all students use devices to access learning, how do we ensure all students have equity in this – not just those in our school community – and access to that sort of learning, the right devices and Wi-Fi?” When it comes to uncertainty, it is usually possible to look to the past for how to respond, said David Willows. However, until now there has been no playbook for school leadership in a pandemic. “There were no historical trends for us to model and reassure us. This was one of the challenges we were facing in those early days. “We are now back in this situation in a second lockdown and a second period of distance learning. We have something to fall back on and it feels very different to that first experience of lockdown. Students have adapted quickly and immediately, but there is a general sense that the challenges moving forward are going to be more challenging than that first adjustment. On the horizon are some of those future challenges where we see seismic changes in international education.”
FACING THE FUTURE – THE IMPORTANCE OF RESILIENCE To manage this uncertainty and the challenges ahead, many international school leaders are working with agility and collaborating in new and innovative ways
PANELLISTS – INTERNATIONAL SCHOOLS, INNOVATION & RESPONSE TO THE PANDEMIC
Ashwin Assomull, Partner at Global Education Practice, L.E.K. Consulting
Jonathan Taylor, Principal, International School Zurich North (Cognita)
Jitin Sethi, Partner at Global Education Practice, L.E.K. Consulting
David Willows, Director of Admissions and Advancement, The International School of Brussels.
8 | Think Global People & Relocate Magazine |
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